You’re sitting at your computer browsing the internet for something interesting, or perhaps just making a routine check to your email when you feel something tickle the top of your foot. Looking down confirms your fear; there is a fairly good sized spider making it’s way across your toes. You let out a yell and jump back out of your chair, effectively kicking it off your foot. You go for the nearest blunt object, deciding that if you take the time to go find the can of Raid, it might crawl off into some dark corner and return again when you least expect it. You take the object, and smash it against the floor with an unpleasant crunch.

centipede

After disposing of it properly, you go back to what you were doing before and shake off the experience. It’s only a few minutes later when you look down at your keyboard and notice that a freakishly large centipede is taking up almost all of your number keys. That is NOT okay. Unwilling to smash something into your keyboard and get bug goo all over your keys, you get up and turn around intending to go to the kitchen and get that raid. But under your foot is an unpleasant texture, and you hear another sickening crunch accompanied by a wetness that wasn’t there before.

You don’t want to look, but you force yourself. There is another bug, dead, smashed under your foot, and another just a few inches away from your toes. You side step quickly to get out of it’s path only to step on another. You look at the floor as a whole now, and see that there are bugs occupying literally every square foot. You scream again, and bound towards the door. You don’t know how this is happening or why, you’ve never had a problem with bugs in your home before, and to have such a sudden and severe infestation might give you reason to believe someone had cursed you. You reach the door to see that it’s closed. You hadn’t left it closed. You attempt to turn the handle, but the door is locked. You turn the lock and try again, but it still wont open. You’re trapped. Just you and the bugs.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow

Pirate woman

Yo ho yo ho it’s a pirate’s life for me.Yo ho yo ho it’s a pirate’s life for me. There are a couple of ways to do a pirate costume for this upcoming Halloween, if you decide that you do indeed want to dress as a pirate. There is of course the Halloween staple of red, white and black pirate costumes, that generally feature a vest or tunic of some sort, and striped black and white pants that look like they were shredded at the bottom. But there are tons of other versions available now as well.

There is what is best known as the “Captain Jack” costume, since there are tons of variations of it, but it’s clear that they were all made to look like Jack’s outfit from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The key to a good pirate costume really is layers and essential props. If you’re looking at costumes to purchase, keep an eye out for these things, and you’ll notice that they make the costume seem cooler and more authentic. A simple white shirt, pants and an eye patch would do the trick. But if you added a couple of belts (one to hold up your pants and the other to attach your gun holster to), then you would begin to see the improvements already. Why not take it a step further and add a pair of knee-high boots, or a vest/jacket of some kind? Perhaps a hat with a feather in it, a sword, or a parrot to sit on your shoulder would add some extra flair. Take a step back and just look, your pirate costume looks like a real pirate now! This is one of those costumes that (if you have the means to) you could do a little bit of splurging and watch the difference it makes in the finished product.

When you think of a guy in an executioner costume, what image comes to mind? For most of us it is the image of a large man wearing a black hood with eyeholes cut in, standing on a platform with a sharpened axe in his hand. But generally executioners were either military men, or simply a person whose job it was to carry out what the law had decreed. An executioner was generally given a warrant that authorized him to carry out the sentence without becoming a murderer himself, and traveled around an area to perform executions when needed (which was not very often). He would specialize in the task of executing, but if they should need him for torture or other non-lethal punishments he wasn’t too far away.

Execution by guillotine

During the French revolution, the guillotine was heavily used, and the job of executioner was taken up by a few men. Usually the job was handed off to a close friend, relative or a son when the executioner chose or was told to step down from his post. The executioner was not one that was shunned by the public, he was more of a popular figure. At one point in time there were postcards made featuring the current executioner carrying out the task via guillotine. (This is how one little boy found out that one of his relations was the current executioner of France. That must have been a confusing day for him.) Until 1977 executions continued in France, but they were formally abolished in 1981.

Enabling the cold sharp steel of an axe or guillotine blade to slice through a person’s flesh, spine and throat; that is what these men made a living off of. With a job description so gruesome though, they still managed to live fairly normal lives. They married, raised children and grew old. But who knows what type of a person it takes to complete these tasks over and over again and live the rest of their lives peacefully afterward. Or were they tormented by the grim truth of what they had done? Nobody can say.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow